OK, now we're talking. I had a phenomenal time playing last night. I finally feel completely at ease with all the new systems (weight-versus-recharge, scanning-while-evading-Reapers), the new Powers, etc. and so I was able to play in a much more "fluid" (i.e., not stopping to agonize over menu screens every fifteen minutes) manner and, as a result, made significant progress in the story. I think I reached the end of what I'm going to call "Act 1" (the game doesn't delineate it nearly as abruptly as, say, Dragon Age 2, but based on the plot developments, it felt like the end of an Act).

A very minor spoiler, by the way, for which mission triggers the end of the Act, with an associated reset/lockout from completing a bunch of the minor scanning-type objectives (i.e., hand in those artifacts, etc. before going here, or you won't be able to, although you do get a whole new set of scanning missions afterwards):

Spoiler for Hiden:

Tuchanka

The missions I played last night were absolutely fantastic: fast-paced and dramatic and, even this early in the game, I had to make a choice that gutted me worse than Virmire did in ME1 (and that was at top of my Best Gaming Moments list for a long time). MAJOR spoiler for what I did:

Spoiler for Hiden:

He was the very model of a scientist Salarian.

Regarding the differences between main missions and side missions, ME3 definitely has the best implementation of all three games. Hell, the side missions (which I'm defining as anything not labeled "Priority" in my journal) may be a little shorter than the main ones but, other than that, they feel just as fully developed. They're much larger than the space-confined side missions of ME2 but still take place on unique maps for each, unlike ME1's cookie-cutter missions. There are cutscenes and voicework (often providing cameo opportunities for they-could-be-dead squadmates from ME2) and one even had a very dramatic moment for a completely new character. And, of course, they usually have some potential reward in terms of your war preparations. The only ones that are underwhelming are the "N7" tagged missions, which I think are just the single-player introduction to the multiplayer maps.

One BioWare trend that has continued is that there are no essentially no large, open hub areas. Of the hubs you visit in ME2 (Omega, Tuchanka and Illium), I've only been back to Tuchanka so far, where the open area is completely gone: now, when you enter orbit, you simply get highlighted spot(s) on the planet's surface to click on to go directly to a particular mission. Similarly, the Citadel has been redesigned again and consists (so far) of five different, disconnected areas that you access by an elevator loading screen, very much unlike the nearly-seamless way you could walk around ME1's Citadel. I've long since made my peace with the fact that BioWare builds games this way but people who feel an open world is necessary to feel a sense of scope and scale may still be disappointed.

By the way, this is still anecdotal, but it seems like Galactic Readiness is not going to be much of a problem. I've already nearly two-thirds filled it (counting Effective Strength only, not the grayed-out bar of what I'd have if I played more MP), despite missing a bunch of those scanning objectives, and I still have several races to recruit, I think. Now, this is coming from a ME1/2 playthrough where everyone lived, which has produced a few missions and war assets that I'm not sure would exist otherwise, and I've made one major choice that I think was "optimal" for the war effort that I could people making differently (i.e., you might do something more morally praiseworthy but less militarily useful), so I could easily see people being in much worse shape than I am. That said, my point is that, right now, I don't feel like I'm going to have grind "scanning" missions just to get a "good" ending. We'll see how it plays out...

Speaking of the scanning missions, one thing I like it that it's much easier to do them in small batches (basically, every time I finish a mission, I scan the system before heading to the mass relay); whereas, in ME2, the large mineral requirements for certain upgrades could make you feel like you needed to grind out 50K units of platinum, etc. right now in order to buy whatever-it-is. The fact that the plot also seems to impose a time restriction on some of them (see above) also encourages you to do them sporadically as they become available, rather than letting a large amount of the least-exciting gameplay pile up on you.

The game retains but makes much better use of ME2's e-mail system. Instead of getting flavour e-mail that you can't react to, you'll get e-mails asking you to meet people on the Citadel, or talk to your squadmates, or sit down for an interview with that reporter chick, etc. They've also expanded it to a couple other places: there's a Shadow Broker intel terminal that you can peruse and (story-dependent, I assume) a SPECTRE information terminal on the Citadel as well. And I haven't had one e-mail yet telling me my lover was going to leave me for a Krogan due to his (or my lack of) endowment.

As mentioned in the MP forum, I did try out the MP with Blackjack, et al, last night. It's certainly a lot of fun and the gameplay is very true to the SP side of the game. The one thing I think it's missing is any real sense of narrative. Mass Effect's cover-shooter mechanics are perfectly functional but, by themselves, they aren't really anything special. The game is at it's best when there's a narrative compelling you through the shooter sections -- the race across the outside of the Citadel to catch Saren in ME1, for instance, or clearing the Baria Frontiers office to save Liara in Lair of the Shadow Broker. The MP, however, plays out entirely on generic "base" maps with you fighting unnamed Geth/Reaper/Cerberus troops. It may make sense from a lore point of view -- you're playing a generic soldier fighting the unsung battles of the war -- but it's definitely a lesser experience than fights in the story-driven single player game. That said, the fact that you get to play with, talk to and make fun of other people while you do it makes up for a lot of that, so I'm not trying to say it's boring, just that I still think the SP game is probably a better overall experience.

Other minor notes:

- How can I tell this game got much move love (and was much less rushed) than DA2? Remember how I bitched about there being an obvious opportunity at the end of DA2's second act to show a significant change in the design / environment of Kirkwall for the third act, but they just did...nothing? There's a similar situation at the end of ME3's first act and it is much better handled.

- I just realized last night: the "cosmetic" outfits for your companions now have an impact. If you cycle an NPCs appearance and then view their abilities, you can see that each armor set confers a different bonus, similar to your own armor sets (+25% weapon damage vs +25% shields, etc.).

- I'm leaning towards retracting my criticism from yesterday about the lack of enemy variety. As I progressed through the story last night, I encountered a couple new types, so it may be that the game (reasonably enough) is just introducing them gradually. I was probably expecting a little too much based on the fact that I'm playing an imported, Level-30 character and thought I'd be getting more of a mid-to-late-game experience from the very beginning.

I've seen some posts where there is a bit of confusion about the ability to get the "perfect ending" by only playing single-player, because if you don't play multiplayer (or the iOS game, Infiltrator) your Galactic Readiness stays at 50%.

You do NOT have to play multiplayer to get the best single-player endings.

Here's a bit of clarification:

Your ending(s) are determined by your "Effective Military Strength" (let's call it EMS for now) bar. Focus on that bar - that is your indicator of how well you will do in the end-game.

You can maximize your EMS just by collecting War Assets in the single-player game.

There is a certain threshhold of these you would need to exceed (I can't get too specific) but I can tell you there are MORE than the required amount that can be gathered in the single-player campaign.

"Galactic Readiness" is a modifier you can improve by playing multiplayer. That is to say, if you play a lot of multiplayer, you will need less War Assets from single-player to fill up your EMS bar (ie it will balance out the requirements to account for you playing in both modes). Single-player game play does not impact that bar.

EMS = success. EMS can be maximized via collecting war assets alone, even if your Galactic Readiness is 50%.

I don't really understand the need to keep the "threshold" a mystery. Wouldn't they want players to know how much of these assets they need in SP? Or do they worry we're going to become "War Asset Farmers?"

I don't really understand the need to keep the "threshold" a mystery. Wouldn't they want players to know how much of these assets they need in SP? Or do they worry we're going to become "War Asset Farmers?"

Well, from my understanding (at least based on what the UI is telling me), there is a 'you must get to this point by endgame or else you fail' (marked by the Minimum line). And it wouldn't surprise me that you get different endings based on how fuller you get said bar. How different past the minimum point, only Bioware knows.

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"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

I don't really understand the need to keep the "threshold" a mystery. Wouldn't they want players to know how much of these assets they need in SP? Or do they worry we're going to become "War Asset Farmers?"

Well, from my understanding (at least based on what the UI is telling me), there is a 'you must get to this point by endgame or else you fail' (marked by the Minimum line). And it wouldn't surprise me that you get different endings based on how fuller you get said bar. How different past the minimum point, only Bioware knows.

I'm guessing you need your Total Military Strength at at least 6000 if you don't touch MP since your Effective Military Strength is effected by the Galaxy Readiness. see the attached pic- I currently have 1928 TMS, but my GR is only 50% so my EMS is only 964. the bar is filled about a third of the way, which would make it filled at 3000 EMS.

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My first co-op video compilation (featuring but not limited to our first Gaming Trend group the other night) should be up in a few minutes at:http://youtu.be/tKNOhPNZJe8 (weird link, but that's what YouTube tells me )

I edited a bunch of clips, so these are mostly snippets of battles against Brutes, Mechs and Banshees. Some amusing headset chatter from the GT guys here, including an appropriate summation of the Banshee.

Last night wasn't as much fun as Wednesday, due to bad judgement and bad luck. Bad judgement because I avoided main story missions in favour of catching up on some side missions, N7 missions and artifact scanning. Bad luck because the side missions I ran ended up being mostly "where are they now?" updates on characters from ME2 that I didn't really care about even then. Also, I tend to be less forgiving when I'm short on sleep and tired, which, ironically, is because I've been playing so much ME3. Hopefully tonight will be better, since I've deliberately set myself up to go start the Perseus Veil (AKA, "roadtrip to see Tali", I hope) next.

Actually, the side missions are starting to get somewhat predictable, once it became apparent that the point of them was to tie up the storylines for any companions from ME2 that (a) aren't dead and (b) don't already figure in the main missions somehow. I've started trying to guess who I'm going to run into based on the mission description and intro cutscenes -- i.e., did someone say Ardat-Yakshi? Oh, hi Samara. I guess the faint tinge of disappointment I'm getting from these is because it's so easy to see behind the curtain and tell that these missions were written backwards: instead of being necessary parts of the war story into which your old friends naturally fit, these stories have been created specifically to justify the inclusion of your old friends, with loose connections to the war tossed in so that they don't feel totally out of place.

I'm also starting to get more miffed at the make-work around the scanning objectives. I still think the approach to scanning itself is an improvement over ME2 but the tracking of who gave you which objective, where to go to find it and where to return it needs to be much better. First, the "overheard conversation" gimmick is nice but I often miss half of what's being said because I'm not standing close enough to the speaker (there's no on-screen indication of which unnamed NPC is doing the talking) and they're often competing with other background noise, such as the Citadel's PA system. Second, the quest descriptions don't update at all when you've actually found the item, meaning that unless you do them one at a time, you have to remember which handful of the dozen objectives you have at a time you've already found. And third, only some of the descriptions in your journal specifically tell you which NPC in which section of the Citadel wanted something, which occasionally forces you to load into each area and see if any names pop up on your map. In a game where you can order items from any in-game store right from the Normandy and have it instantly delivered to you anywhere in the galaxy, why do I even have to fly back to the Citadel and run around the Presidium Commons just to return someone's Prothean Obelisk?

Another thing, although this is less of a criticism than just a missed opportunity: the war map sucks. I'm grateful that it exists, because it's the first time in three games that I actually understand where the Terminus Systems and the Traverse are, or what "beyond the Veil" means. But the game now has two full maps of the entire galaxy (one in the CIC and one in the war room) and neither depicts anything whatsoever about the assets you've recruited, fleet locations, operations under way, and so forth? Seriously, Captain Sisko and Admiral Ross had better war maps in DS9, and all they usually had on them were a couple giant arrows. Yes, there are Reaper icons on the CIC galaxy map for systems under attack but there could and should be so much more. And why does the map in the war room, which depicts your tied-to-MP Galactic Readiness, have a readiness percentage for each sector, when that number is identical for each sector and only seems to rise and fall globally? That map, placed as it is right beside the list of war assets, makes it seem to me like they had originally planned a much more involved Readiness system, presumably with different types of war assets boosting readiness regionally (i.e., doing something to strengthen the Terminus Fleet would only have increased readiness in the Terminus Systems) instead of just your overall military strength, but scrapped it without bothering to scale back the UI to match.

This post ended up being pretty negative, which is misleading if you're reading it in isolation. So consider this the disclaimer that I am still enjoying the game - a hell of a lot - and a reminder to read my post yesterday, in particular, for heavier weighting towards the "things I like" side.

This is all why I stick with co-op. Nothing to complain about except how lousy I am.

I don't know what the female enemies with the laser-beam sight is (an AI Infiltrator or something), but I had a scary duel with one last night. Got a little separated, so it was just her and me dodging, spinning, and dancing between doorways, windows and walls on one of the maps that's also in the demo. For a time I really felt I was battling a human player. Just could not get a bead on her. Eventually a teammate kinda flanked her from behind (so to speak), and she was toast. But I was much impressed with the AI there.

Now I'm glad I never finished the first game and never got the second so I actually won't be upset about ME3's ending because I won't know what the heck is going on. I think I'll actually finish it once the co-op addiction wears off...

I do agree with reviews that suggest something (apparently PS3 version has some "motion comic" that at least gives a quick rundown of the "story to this point" and sets the stage) - cutscenes, a wall of text, a comic - should've been in all versions to give noobs some point of reference.

I mean, I see characters talk to or look at each other like they have a history, and I really don't know what it is. I've skimmed the codex a bit, but I almost feel like the game oughta have a "pop up video" option so new players can see a little explanation at times like "these two characters had a fling in ME1, but decided it was less satifying than sex with alien space animals, that's why they glance at each other that way" or "these two argued over something in ME2, that's why they have this attitude towards each other."

Instead I, the mostly newb, am left to think "Oh they must be glancing at each other cause they like their Hot Bodies!" And "these two are gruff with each other because they're both cranky bastards!" Which is fine. Maybe it's even more fun that way, but I wish I could more easily know more about the backstory.

Oh another question, is there a screenshot hotkey? I couldn't find one.

- - -

Another side note, I'm running the game off my Thunderbolt port where I installed a couple of SSDs, so it's blazin fast. Not as fast as if the SSDs were directly installed but close enough. I'm just curious what in-game load times are like for others, as I'm getting almost no loading at all, or so it seems. Sometimes I see a screen pop up that looks like it might be a load screen but then it's gone again so I don't know if that is a glitch or what.

Not as fast as if the SSDs were directly installed but close enough. I'm just curious what in-game load times are like for others, as I'm getting almost no loading at all, or so it seems. Sometimes I see a screen pop up that looks like it might be a load screen but then it's gone again so I don't know if that is a glitch or what.

I'm running it off of a regular HD and the load times are almost non-existent.

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OK, annoying quest found: I found some plans that created a quest entry in the journal said 'find someone on the citadel that can use these'. so I run around all five sections and cannot find anyone. turns out the person who can use them doesn't appear until after a certain event happens. I've had other quests that weren't able to be completed because of an area not being available, but at least they were more specific so you could figure out if they could be completed or not.

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Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

OK, annoying quest found: I found some plans that created a quest entry in the journal said 'find someone on the citadel that can use these'. so I run around all five sections and cannot find anyone. turns out the person who can use them doesn't appear until after a certain event happens. I've had other quests that weren't able to be completed because of an area not being available, but at least they were more specific so you could figure out if they could be completed or not.

I just had one like this. Ended up in Huerta Hospital and talked to anyone and everyone until one of the Dr.'s responded. But other than the hit and miss method I'd still be looking.

We're contacting you about order # for "Mass Effect 3." We recently learned that some customers had trouble installing their game. We're very sorry about this.

If you've had trouble installing your game, please uninstall any existing files and then download the game again from Your Games and Software Library.

To help make it up to you, Amazon.com and Electronic Arts would like to offer a free EA game download. Here's your promotion code:

Promotion Code:

To redeem your code, click the link for one of the Electronic Arts Game Downloads below and click "Buy and Download." Enter your promotion code in the box tilted "Gift codes & promotions" and click "Apply."

Mirror’s EdgeDead SpaceDragon Age: OriginsMass Effect

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Amazon.com

didn't have any issues since I just punched the code into Origin and grabbed it from there. too bad I already have all of those, but I got a buddy who might be interested in DA:O.

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still kinda missing the combat sensor/scanner/optics weapons upgrades that the first game had. had a combat last night that wouldn't end, and after doing a search of the battlefield I ended up finding one of the enemies had clipped most of the ways into a wall.- would have been much easier finding him with those.

I've also been noticing weirdness with character models and animation, like heads turning almost 180 degrees when talking, characters being focused on something else in co0nversation cutscenes and weird clipping issues, like Chakwas arm going into her chest or the back of Shepard's neck popping out at the back of the collar when he's wearing his leather jacket. nothing gamebreaking, it just ruins the immersion when Traynor's head pulls an exorcist as she talks to me while I'm standing behind her.

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So we all now accept the fact that MMO's are released not even close to a finished product, and never wil be. But now it seems to me, that I have to suck it up for single player games for the same reason. This didn't make it in, that should come out...blah,blah,blah. We just keep taking it on the chin and pay for unfinished bug ridden games. And they get away with it because for most it's their only hobby that grants them release from every day frustrations. I still can't transfer my ME 2 save game over. I have jumped over every wall, and gone through every hoop. How can something be so enthusiastically advertised as being a part of the game and yet just not work for everyone. And trust me, there are still a lot of players in the same boat.

Fed up with being conned in by these phoney gamers who say the build the games because of their love of gaming. Do away with the word, gaming, and insert money and you hit the nail on the head.

Arclight, that sucks that your ME2 saves aren't working. Have you tried Gibbed's Saved Game editor to see if that could fix the issue? I have used it on my ME2 saves and I could change/flag options I want into my saved game. Maybe you can make a new save and use it to import a character?

I'll have another compilation gameplay video up in a few minutes from some Vanguard adventures at Firebase Glacier. I think that's my favorite co-op map because it sort of winds in on itself, and there's a lot of CQB situations. Gets very intense, even on Bronze challenge. We had some great two and three person games there yesterday.

*Primarily with my Asari Vanguard, which I really enjoying playing. That's probably my favorite map cause it's tight, no dull spots, and a shotgun's useful due to all the CQB situations. The footage sort of starts in the hallway, moves into the basement so to speak, then into the main lab area (or whatever it is) and then into the platform where the extraction takes place and all sorts of nuttiness goes on.

*When my Asari's wearing yellow, it was a duo with European bud Topper; when wearing pink, it was with CaptainFooz (pal of someone here, I forget who?) and Topper.

LOL, I liked the conversation between Cortez and Vega about the Mako vs the Hammerhead; it summed them up perfectly. the Hammerhead was agile but it felt like it had tissue paper for armor while the Mako was solid and clunky.

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so does that go down over time, or are you going to have 100% forever now?

played a couple of matches and I got the GRR to 58%, with 56% in every system except Terminus which is at 62%.

fwiw, I can vouch the % does seem to trickle down from 100%, even in a matter of hours, in line with what Namatoki said earlier.

I have truly, never had this much co-op fun in a third person shooter. I'm sure at some point I'll be sick of it, and I certainly hope DLC plans include some new MP maps down the road, perhaps some different co-op map objectives in the mix, things like that.

I'm not even sure now that I want text chat added in the game (though in the lobby would be welcome imho). In PUGs, most people just don't say a peep. You're left just trying to visually understand what other players are doing and you try to sort of stick with them and complement them. No nastier trash talking. No yelling at people (as was happening regularly in my SWTOR Flashpoints). Just work together and have a blast.

Still, it's fun when playing with GTers and their buds to do a little bit of joking around, light trash talking, and the occasional "Look out behind you!" etc. Or hollering directions at someone while in spectator mode, like a back seat driver.